Parallels
by Mallika
Summary: Collection of short stories involving the Doctor in all his parallel universes. Will be mostly 11 and Amy adventures, with occasional appearances from the rest of the Pond family.
1. Chapter 1: Red

Summary: Short stories about the Doctor in all his parallel universes. Will be mostly Amy and 11 centric. Completely inspired by Never2bforgotten's story "For Every 3,625 Days" Chapter 18: Impressionism. s/9092822/18/. Check it out if you have a chance it's lovely.

Red: In which the Doctor is finally a ginger.

.

.

.

.

They are very hard to miss, the two of them. Matching flaming red hair, wearing the biggest smiles the universe has ever beheld, running everywhere hand in hand.

"You know, Amelia, ten different faces and never, never have I been ginger until now! We were meant to find each other, you and I."

When they arrive in Balflam, the islanders bow down to them, pushing trinkets and fruit and scarves and flowers into their hands. Descendants of the Fire Gods, children of _Befletara_, they say. The Doctor explains to Amy that this particular gene pool has not had gingers for millennia, and worshipped the living volcano in the centre of the island.

"Gods! It's much better than being told we have no souls, I'll give you that."

She flips her fiery hair as she laughs with him.

When the living volcano threatens to explode, Amy and the Doctor pay Befletara a visit. Amy leans over his edge and coaxes Bef (whose real name is Luke) not to blow up because there were a lot of people down there who loved him and they would die, then no one would be there to love him and he would be very lonely, wouldn't he?

Amy burns nearly all her hair off saving the island and her wild red mane is left extremely short and singed, barely red with blackened ends. She knows it's silly, and she knows it's just hair and it will grow back, and she just saved an entire island, but she cries anyway and insists on wearing a hooded sweatshirt for the rest of the trip, even though Balflamic temperature is forty degrees too hot for that kind of clothing.

After she snaps at the Doctor for the tenth time for pulling off her hood, he gives her a frustrated look and pushes her into the shade and tells her to wait. He disappears and she swelters in the heat annoyed at herself and annoyed at him and missing her hair.

In ten minutes he returns with a shaved head and a wide grin. She gasps. His red locks are gone.

Amy cries again and lunges at him, guilty and apologetic and knowing if there was anyone who loved their hair more than she loved hers, it was the Doctor.

"Wait you haven't even seen the best part-"

The Doctor turns around and a ridiculous smiley face is shaved in a pattern on his head.

She bursts out laughing and discards her sweatshirt.


	2. Chapter 2: Boyfriends

Boyfriends: In which the Doctor really did come back in five minutes.

.

.

.

.

"No, no, no! No more boyfriends! Absolutely no more boyfriends on the TARDIS, Amelia Pond."

She makes a face and puts her hands on her hips, battle ready. "Doctor, I am sixteen years old and in the last week I have battled the Reavers of the Gungwen galaxy, saved the Mahoan, Clantorn, and Nanao civilizations; I am the first human ever inducted into the Shadow proclamation and I think I'm ready for a serious relationship now!"

He rolls his eyes. "Might I remind you that the last time you brought a boy on board, he almost fed us to his family. The time before that, John or Jeff or Josh or whatever tried to steal alien tech to sell back in your time. Then there was Makhrm from Lithmik who broke the– "

"Okay, okay so I've had some bad luck but, I swear this one only wants to travel, he wants to see nebulas and meet Silurians, and dance in a thousand different oceans on a thousand different planets and – "

"Those are your words, not his." He chuckles at her attempts.

She pauses, then relents. "Fine, fine, fine, he wants to come because of me. He's not even the brave type, really, he's sort of a scaredy cat, but he's a good person. Good to the core. I can feel it. I can tell. And I really like him, Doctor. Just trust- "

"Amelia,"

The Doctor places both hands on her shoulders, smiles solemnly, then kisses her forehead. Maybe this time he'd bend, she is hopeful, and smiles her brightest smiles -

"No."

She shakes him off, makes a loud teenage "UGH" sound, and storms off to her room. He thinks the conversation is over and can't wait until she is out of her teenage years because, really, it was getting exhausting, but promises to take her to swim with the dolphin-people in the forty-second century the moment she stopped brooding.

Amy rushes back out with her travel pack on and her determined steely eyes.

"If you won't let him come, then I'm going to stay."

.

.

.

The Doctor's mouth is briefly agape before he starts having fits of laughter.

"Hey! I'm not kidding Doctor! I'm going to stay. Not forever, but a while. A month. See where this goes."

"Pond, you could barely stand a month on Space Florida before you got bored. And that place is designed so you _never_ get bored. Don't be ridicu-"

"Well this is different. I'm going to stay here for a month. Come back for me. I'll be safe here, you know I will. So give me this."

He stops laughing. He gauges her words, studies her eyes, and sees the conviction. Eight years of travel and she had never, ever asked to stay anywhere for longer than two weeks, and of all places, here?

"You're sure about this?"

She hasn't broken eye contact.

"Yes. I haven't tried standing still for a long time. Maybe it'll do me some good, you know?"

Amelia Pond. Glorious girl. Beautiful dreams of stars and heroics and the wild unknown.

"Okay Pond. One mont– "

"Really? Really! I can stay? I can really stay!" She is jumping on him and jumping everywhere screaming to the TARDIS did you hear that old girl, he's finally budging! and giggling and smiling and hugging.

He sighs again, suddenly serious. "Amy," she stops jumping, "you could always stay. It's just you've never wanted to. I would never keep you from your home."

She looks at him, confusion flickering for a moment before melting into slight annoyance.

"Oh shut up, this is my home."

The solemn looks fade and he breaks out into a grin.

"Alright, Amy Pond. A month it is. A vacation apart. Oh finally, some peace and quiet and freedom from that awful smelling nail lacquer. Well off you go, Pond. Off to Earth."

He is all but pushing her out of the doors. She whirls around and hugs him hard and fast and he smiles into her hair and hugs back.

"It'll just be a month."

"I know."

.

.

.

Amelia Pond walks away from the TARDIS, smiling and waving and wondering if she's going to regret this decision, as she watches their big blue box dematerialize. Just as she turns away she hears the familiar sound again. Preparing to scold him and remind him on their no take-backsies rule, he pokes his head out and asks

"Sorry, what in the world is this fellow's name?"

Amy smiles.

"Rory."


	3. Chapter 3: Phoenix

Phoenix

.

.

.

.

"You know or we could go to –"

Amy stopped mid-sentence and lurched out of her seat while the Doctor shouted for her (what's the matter) in between pulling levers, (what's wrong) pushing buttons, (Amy what are you doing) and ringing bells. She ran to the only calendar in the TARDIS, the one keeping track of her time as it passed by.

"It's my birthday!"

.

.

.

.

They blew out their candles at the same time.

"Sixty! We're sixty, Amelia, can you believe it?"

When Amy turned twenty-two, the Doctor arbitrarily decided to celebrate his birthday the same day as hers from that day forth. He much preferred celebrating with company than alone, which he often was nowadays. When his visits became less and less frequent, she knew that there was still one day of the year she could count on seeing him.

"Ha, _I'm_ sixty, space man, not you. You're how old now?"

"Always with the personal questions, Amelia," the Doctor beamed at her and tapped her nose. "Nine hundred and forty-eight."

She cupped his cheek and noticed the crow's feet dashing his eyes, mirroring hers, and the spots of pepper in his hair. He still managed to look so boyish, it was unfair.

"I'll never get over how human you look. You look so human."

"And you look _so_ Time Lord, Pond. And beautiful I might add –"

"Standing right here, Doctor."

"And, you as well, Mr. Pond! Dashing as ever!"

.

.

.

.

Amy lay in bed, breathing deeply and slowly. It was raining outside and her birthday was almost over. Her hand stretched over to where Rory's used to be. When she heard the familiar breaths of that magical blue box, she did not get up.

He stepped in with a sad smile.

"You were almost late, raggedy man."

He sat down on the chair by her bed and grasped her hand. It felt as small as it was when they first met.

"I know, I'm sorry."

She was glad she managed to stay awake because she feels so tired tonight. Amelia Pond had innumerable magical spectacles crammed into her tiny human life, and she could feel the weight of her years in her bones. She was calmed by his presence, welcoming the reminder of all those brilliant, full years.

"You know Doctor, I think this one year, we can skip the birthday trip. I'm happy just staying here."

Still the sad smile.

"Your birthday, Pond. You call the shots."

"Our birthday."

There were deeper lines in his forehead, creases in his skin, and his hair was nearly all grey. He looked so very worn too.

"You look older. Much older. Older than nine hundred and seventy-five. It's obvious even to me, Doctor, even with your graceful aging."

She caught the brief moment when he couldn't quite meet her eyes. She knew what that meant.

"It's happening then, isn't it?"

The Doctor still wore his sad smile as he rubbed his fingers back and forth over her knuckles.

"I'm a thousand years old now, Amy. Hit the big millennium mark."

He ran for twenty-five years avoiding this. He delayed it as long as he could. He kept telling himself next year, next year, next year. The TARDIS finally put her foot down and forced him to this location. As he went tumbling through the time vortex he pulled every possible switch he could get his hands on, anything to change the course. It was to absolutely no avail.

"You celebrated twenty-five birthdays without me?"

His eyes were downcast.

"Oh. You know me, busy. Things to do, people to meet, planets to save…busy. You never had one without me though, eh?"

It had been too many decades for the Doctor to fool Amelia Pond any more.

"I hope you weren't alone for them all."

He was holding her hand in both of his, and his eyes were smarting. Even though the Doctor still moved like a young man (a gift of being a Time Lord) he looked older than she did.

She knew the longer he forced himself to stay in that old, decaying body, the more regeneration energy he would need to move onto his next. He had synced every single one of their birthdays for her. He made it so that every time they saw each other they had both spent the same amount of time apart. She and her best friend, graying at the same time, year for year. Except this year. He should have come sooner, she wishes he had come sooner. He was shortening his own life span by staying this way.

"How you manage to still run about in that old body of yours, I'll never understand. You should have regenerated years ago, you silly man."

He looked at her sharply and with a stern, stubborn voice,

"You were the first face this face ever saw, and I intend for you to be the last."

.

.

.

.

She was.

.

.

.

.

Phoenix: In which the Doctor ages in between regenerations.


	4. Chapter 4: Chameleon

Chameleon

.

.

.

.

"I can't believe you can't remember where you parked. It's been two hours, Doctor."

"I remember where I parked, it was most definitely 5P, that's why we're here, Pond. That's not the problem – "

"No, the problem is that while you love blue, you'd love to have some red in your life, ooh and purple, because isn't purple just _divine, _and wouldn't it be cool if she had wheels?"

"Well it _was_ cool, wasn't it?"

Amy rolls her eyes. "Now she's mad at you, and she's going to take her sweet time hiding from us."

"Have faith Amy. We're going to find her, I can sense it, I can sense her. She's definitely here."

Amy checks the stairwell again for the security guard. They'd already been asked to leave for trying to jam their way into other people's cars. The nickers were definitely going to be here soon and she would rather not spend her night in jail for attempted auto theft.

"Maybe if you shout that you're sorry she'll come back."

"Maybe you should keep checking doors."

She groans in frustration, then tries the next set of cars using her key.

"Honestly, Doctor, I'm quite surprised this is even happening. Searching for our ride in a parking garage, I mean it's just so…so…human!"

"Well, Amy, I'm sorry I can't just snap my fingers to make my magical time and space travelling ship reappe-…Oh." He smacks himself in the forehead. "Oh, Amy…"

"What? What is it? You've got that look on your face. What did you figure out?"

Realization dawns on her face.

He snaps his fingers.

.

.

.

.

"Let's just stick to the police box then, yeah?"


End file.
